On a little shelf in Margaret’s room her old text-books, seldom opened, are souvenirs of her busy life at college.  Her hand has learned the cunning which concocts dainty dishes and lucent jellies; her housekeeping and her hospitality are famous.  She is a bright talker, witty, charming, with the soft inflections which make the vibrant tunefulness of the Virginian woman’s voice so tender and sweet a thing in the ear.  Mount Seward is to her the Mecca of memory.  If ever she has a daughter she will send her there, and—­who knows?—­that girl may be professor at Hilox.

For though Margaret is not absent from her own household, she is not long to be Margaret Lee.  The wedding-cake is made, and is growing rich and firm as it awaits the day when the bride will cut it.  The wedding-gown is ordered.  Dr. Angus has proposed at last; he had never thought of wooing or winning any one except the fair girl who caught his fancy and his heart ten years ago, and when Margaret next visits her New England relations it will be to present her husband.

The professor, who had been her most dearly beloved friend during those happy college days, her confidante and model, said to one who recalled Margaret Lee and spoke of her as “a great disappointment, my dear:” 

“Yes, we expected her to make a reputation for herself and Mount Seward.  She has done better.  She has been enabled to do her duty in the station to which it has pleased God to call her—­a good thing for any girl graduate, it seems to me.”

    A Christmas Frolic.

    BY MRS. M.E.  SANGSTER.

    We had gone to the forest for holly and pine,
      And gathered our arms full of cedar,
    And home we came skipping, our garlands to twine,
      With Marcus, the bold, for our leader.

    The dear Mother said we might fix up the place,
      And ask all the friends to a party;
    So joy, you may fancy, illumined each face
      And our manners were cordial and hearty.

    But whom should we have?  There were Sally and Fred,
      And Martha and Luke and Leander;
    There was Jack, a small boy with a frowsy red head,
      And the look of an old salamander.

    There was Dickie, who went to a college up town,
      And Archie, who worked for the neighbors;
    There were Timothy Parsons and Anthony Brown,
      Old fellows, of street-cleaning labors.

    And then sister had friends like the lilies so fair,
      Sweet girls with white hands and soft glances;
    At a frolic of ours these girls must be there,
      Dear Mildred and Gladys and Frances.

    At Christmas, my darlings, leave nobody out,
      ’Tis the feast of the dear Elder Brother,
    Who came to this world to bring freedom about,
      And whose motto is “Love one another.”

    When the angels proclaimed Him in Judea’s sky
      They sang out His wonderful story,
    And peace and good will did they bring from on high,
      And the keystone of all laid with glory.